Basil Boursin, Roasted Red Pepper Chicken Roulade

Ok this one is fairly simple,

8oz chicken breast
2oz herb boursin cheese
1/2 a roasted red pepper
3 to 4 medium to large basil leaves
1 Clove garlic, fine mince
1/2 cup Chicken or vegetable stock/broth
Splash of white wine
Dash of lemon juice
Bacon Fat. or olive oil for you health conscious buzzkills :P
Salt and Pepper to taste

Take an 8oz chicken breast and place it between two sheets of plastic wrap, use a meat tenderizer or the bottom of a heavy duty saute pan, and pound the chicken breast flat. Season with Salt and Pepper. Add in the herbed boursin cheese, and the roasted red peppers, and the basil chiffonade (roll the basil up like youre rolling a cigar or cigarette, and cut into very fine thin shreds). Tuck the ends so as to avoid all the boursin running out of them, Roll the chicken breast up and tie it in three to four sections using bakers twine, aka string.

Start this one off in an oven safe saute pan searing the breast in either oil or my favorite, bacon fat... mmmm bacon fat... errrr um yeah .... on medium to high heat to get some carmelization and color on the outside of the roulade, when you have a nice golden brown color on the chicken hit the pan with the taking care not to let the garlic bitter (turn brown). Once you get that aroma from the minced garlic (it will be like blast of garlic smell released into the air) add the splash of white wine, and dash of lemon juice, and the chicken stock/broth then place in 375degree oven to finish. Cut into small round pieces and voila, you have the basil boursin roasted red pepper chicken roulade.

Boursin might not be the best cheese to use for this, as when it gets heated it melts very quickly and easily and becomes more liquid than cheesy, personally i wrote it this way because i do love the boursin, but if you are looking for that cheesey pizza like filling, go with a mozarella or a pepperjack, again this is just to give you an idea so that you can try for yourself and substitute anything you want for anything you want, the chicken can become veal or lamb, the cheese can be as basic as mozzarella or as intimidating as lavender chevre (goat cheese), the red peppers can be carmelized onions and peppers, ya see where im going with this folks? EXPERIMENT, these are just a basis for you to play with in your head and in your kitchen :D and once again the above picture is NOT one of mine, it was borrowed yet again from google images... I really need to start taking the time to take pictures of my work, WHEN I start working again lolol

Grilled Jamaican Jerk Pork Tenderloin w/ Pomegranate Brandy BBQ sauce glaze.

Ok so todays recipe is going to be Jamaican jerk season rubbed pork tenderloin with pomegranate brandy bbq glaze.

The "easy" way to do this is going be to get your Jamaican jerk seasoning rub pre-made from the store, as well as some cattleman's bbq sauce and just add enough pomegranate juice and brandy to it to taste.

Rub the tenderloin with desired amount of jerk seasoning... (its known to be a bit spicy but varies from brand to brand, in the restaurants we typically use schreiber brand seasonings).. After you've placed what you feel is an appropriate amount of rub let it sit for a a few minutes and soak in some of the seasonings, then slap it on a hot and ready to go grill, depending on the thickness of the tenderloin it can take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes*(see note at bottom) depending on the temperature of your grill and whether or not you like to play with the meat and rotate it repeatedly.... LET IT SIT you should only move grilled items 4 times, once at a 45 degree angle after a few minutes to get those nice cross hatch marks and then flip it over and repeat cross hatching process. Approximately 5 to 10 minutes before being completely done apply a nice liberal mopping of the pom. bbq sauce, flip it over to let the heat proceed to glaze the sauce on to the meat and repeat once again for the other side. This produces a nice sweet, spicy combination for the tenderloin.

If you cant find the jamaican jerk seasoning here is a list of the spices and herbs typically found in them

Salt

Allspice,

ground clove

thyme,

cinnamon,

nutmeg,

garlic powder,

scotch bonnet peppers (dried and crushed be careful with these, dont touch yer eyes or ANY other sensitive part of yourself without washing your hands, cant tell you how many newbies ive seen come running out of the bathroom in tears cause they handled themselves without washing their hands before hitting the head)

This is just one of thousands of variations, want to add a little coriander? maybe some dried lemon basil? how about some onion powder? Knock yourself out! its all just a guide, its up to you to play with it and find your favorite variation, I've got mine, but ive got a few "hard to find" ingredients i throw in there, so im keeping that one proprietary ;)

For the bbq sauce, again I have my recipe but thats another one of those im keeping proprietary, a guys gotta keep some secrets in this world :D, Personally i feel cattleman's is one of the best on the market, it has a nice balance of sweet and tangy. So that is what i usually reccomend, and then just doctor it up with the pomegranate juice until you can taste the flavor profile in the sauce. But here is a basic recipe from culinary school in case you want to try and be a purist and make your own.

1 quart of tomato puree

1 pint water

2/3 cup worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 veg oil

1 cup minced onions

5 medium cloves of garlic minced

1/4 cup sugar

tablespoon of dry mustard powder

2 tsp chili powder

salt and pepper to taste.

again, use that as a guide, play with the ingredient amounts until you find the one you like, add or take away things to personalize and make it better.

*(real thick tenderloins can take even longer, you might consider cutting them down for time reasons, if you have the time though, just lower the grill temperature and cook it slow and low, always the best way to go) the best way to make sure meat is done is of course the meat thermometer, for years old schoolers like myself have knocked kids coming out of culinary school with their little bio-therms and stabbing the food to see if its done, weve always used our fingers like the old school mentors that taught us to gauge whether or not the meat is done, however, I dont want anyone trying to sue me for getting trichinosis so use the friggin thermometer until the center of the meat reads 160 degrees fahrenheit as the latest USDA guidelines indicate (overdone in my book but again, you dont want you or children getting a food born illness)

Bulgogi - Korean Style Thinly Sliced Grilled Beef

ok kiddies... todays recipe is going to be... BULGOGI! yay! Since im a korean half breed, i figured it only fitting that this should be the first recipe I post in this section, i know, i know kim chi would have been more appropriate, but I think the american palette prefers the sweet beef opposed to the pickled or fermented cabbage.... sooooo....

traditionally this dish calls for the use of ribeye or other very tender meat, I kind of replace these expensive cuts with more cost effective cuts like sirloin, flank, flat iron, etc.... almost any cheaper beef will work since you will be cutting it very thin and marinating it to tenderize, however i would reccomend against chuck or rump roast as it tends to stil be a bit chewy. Approximately 1lb of beef will be required for this recipe,

Ingredients:
1 lb of beef thinly sliced into long wide (as possible) strips as this will make for easier grilling. If using flank or flat iron, cut on the bias so as to get a wider grilling surface area for the meat.

Marinade:
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
1/2 cup of rice wine
1 Asian pear*
1/2 A vidalia onion or other sweet onion varietal, bermuda are not traditionally used, but again, half breed style says its ok ;)
3 smalle to medium size green onions, green and white part used, usually in america we just use the green tops for the color and slight flavor, but for this recipe you want to use the white parts as well for flavor in the marinade
4 cloves of garlic, finely minced or chopped
1 teaspoon of sugar, i prefer to use brown sugar as during the grilling process this carmelizes better and gives it a little bit of that molasses smokey taste
1 1/2 Tablespoons of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of toasted sesame seed. Black and white sesame seeds provide a great color contrast as well, if black sesame seeds are readily availiable and money is not an issue i say go for it.
Salt and pepper to flavor.... be mindful of the salt content as the soy sauce if of course very salty, and will soak into the beef.

* if asian pears are not readily availiable substitue 1/2 bosc pear and 1/4 green apple, not nearly the same flavor profile but it will provide the acids and compounds to help tenderize the beef.

Marinade the beef overnight for best results, however, 20 mins works as too if your in a hurry and just need your bulgogi fix!

Now for the cooking part. The best method is over fired coals to help provide the smokiness as the juices drip onto the coals, so a small hibachi or grill with very thin grates, otherwise you will lose alot of the meat to the grill gods as it slips between the grates, a cookie cooling sheet is a good thing to place over the grill rack if all you have is the standard bbq grill setup. Gas grilling is adequate but you will miss out on some of the flavor profiles, and lastly, the ultra americanized version, is throw the whole thing in a saute pan, and fire it up at low heat till done..... this is not bulgogi in the traditional sense, but what it does do is leave you alot of the marinade and beef juice behind to drizzle over your rice, i've come to love this method just for the juice over the rice!

Good accompaniments are of course sticky white rice, traditional cabbage kimchi, cucumber kimchi, spicy soybean sprouts, or and vegetable you really want to accompany it with.

In fine dining restaurants where i have run this as a special i usually turn it into a napoleon (stacked item) with a base of spicy asian vinaigrette tossed arugula salad topped with fried wonton square, on top of that a ring or square mold of white sticky rice, topped by another crispy fried wonton square, and on top of that the bulgogi, and then garnished on top with fine julienne of cucumber kimchi w/ julienne carrots an onions. And i usually wrote something in asian style letterings around the plate in sriacha sauce, and sprinkled with black and white toasted sesame seeds. I wish i had taken pictures as i have made this many times with resounding success in restaurants. But the above posted picture from google images gives you an idea as to generally what it should look like when prepared at home, i prefer to use higher heat then it appears the picture was prepared with, as the "burnt" crispy edges really intensify the sweet flavorings, much like bbq!

Give it a shot, lemme know how it works out for you! if you multiply the recipe, becareful as to the soysauce content, as you dont want the beef to become so salty that its like brined beef lolol.

oh and clicking these pictures will NOT take you to a lounge on fubar, i have disabled the coding for that seing as how you would need a fubar account to get in anyways, these are just some bulletins made for me or by me to post on fubar to get people into the lounge where we have live streaming dj's that you can hear via the player on the blog page, a chat lounge, live webcams, if youre bored and want something to do go check it out somtime. http://www.fubar.com is the url
i'll be on air from 11pm to 2am PST stop in an have some fun, got a pretty ecclectic mix for tonight, same shift tomorrow night, all funk tomorrow night :D

Hmmm What to put on here....

Yeah definately end up adding alot of recipes im sure, probably blog about what bands im listenin to an groovin on of late, and the ever popular wtf am i up to.... which of late has been a whole lot of nada!!